29 July 2010

So I finally got around to Monday's CAS challenge - to take inspiration from the title One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. I kept it pretty literal, as you can see here:

My fishes (from A Muse) are indeed red and blue. I put that MA in English to good use with my editing marks on the sentiment (from SU's Occasional Quotes and an old random alpha set). And yes, I used a pun on purpose. Don't get used to it. The image and sentiment are both stamped on glossy white cs, with a Bermuda Bay textured base (3.5x5), some PTI bitty dot paper, and ribbon from the stash because it needed another bit of red to look balanced. That dang knot wouldn't quite lay straight, though. Oh well.

Marty update: she had her bone marrow tests today, and she came home a little while ago just as lively as usual, even though she looks mangy now that she's been shaved in 4 places. Oy. Now we wait for results until at least Monday, and perhaps all the way until next Friday. Oy again. But she's a happy cat -- the roller coaster is harder on us than her!

I'm looking forward to hitting Maker Faire this weekend -- it's the first time it's come to Detroit (and the whole Midwest, actually), and it'll be just up the road from us. Cool. What are your weekend plans? Enjoy them!

28 July 2010

Hi y'all -
First, a Marty update: she was scheduled for a second transfusion today, but her numbers went up and she didn't need one - hooray! She'll still undergo some bone marrow testing tomorrow, though. I'm beginning to think I'm nuts - she's fine, no - she's sick, no - she's fine. Big roller coaster for a tiny cat.

Speaking of tiny cat, I used one for Susan'sOne Layer Wednesday challenge -- make a square card using an outline stamp with little or no coloring. Here's what I came up with:

Yep, it's a girl holding a tiny cat. I used some very limited blender-pen watercoloring to make the kitty look a little like Marty, and to give the girl (who looks nothing like me!) a little detail as well. That stamp was designed by Suzi Blu to benefit A Place to Bark in TN, a really great-sounding no-kill shelter (for cats, too!) I first heard about from Lydia Fiedler (UnderstandBlue on SCS) -- she designed a stamp too, as did Claudine Hellmuth. I have all three -- you can check them out and/or get them here.

I really like the way this turned out -- minimal coloring and all! Here's a close-up:

Rustic Cream cardstock and the sentiment are from PTI, colors are early espresso, pear pizazz, blushing bride, and river rock from SU. I think I'll see if I can somehow send it to the cat who was the donor for Marty's first transfusion.

Thanks for taking a peek! Have a lovely day, and wish us luck tomorrow!

27 July 2010

Hey -
We do have two cats, you know, even though only Marty's gotten attention here lately.
Meet Dexter:

Like her sister, Dexter is also a girl cat with a boy name. She's 8, a bit chunky, and completely healthy. Here she is enjoying our new kitchen, which matches her perfectly. If I was into staging my shoots, I would've brushed her first, but I took this during prime shedding season!

For the layout, I took all that black and white-ness and threw in a big shot of red, thanks to that paper from Ruby Rock-It, some Jenni Bowlin butterfly stickers, and some other goodies. The swirly and stripe-y border bits are from my recent kit leftover trade with Liz. The white BG letters in the title were a little too white, so I went back in with a little script stamp and some red ink and gave them a little color. Maybe you can see that if you give the photo a click and enlarge it. You should be able to check out this layout at Scrappy Chic sometime soon if you're in the neighborhood.

In other news, Marty cat is not super-swell. Her numbers dropped again, so she'll go in for a likely second transfusion tomorrow, followed by some further testing on Thursday. Turns out none of the "easy" explanations for her issues are the right ones. I'm a little bit of a wreck about it, but Marty seems totally fine, eating and sleeping and hanging out exactly as she usually does. Hard to believe there's so much wrong.

26 July 2010

First, the news for now: Marty came home with us last night; her blood count was holding and she was eating and all of those other good things. Tomorrow we get her blood count done again, and by the end of the week we'll have some test results that will hopefully reveal causes. Besides two bald spots and some pink fur (I'm not good at giving liquid medication to a wiggly cat!), she's doing as well as can be expected. That's a relief, and I hope not a temporary one.

Second, I made a little layout:

Cute, ain't she? I'd already picked out these photos to go with some Basic Grey Olivia paper from my bonus Scrappy Chic kit, and I decided that my brandy-new Indie Girl goodies from Sassafras were a pretty good fit, too.

"Moo" is Marty's primary nickname. When she was a kitten, her meows were kind of cute and tiny, and we decided she couldn't handle both syllables of "meow." Definitely more of a "moo." Now we call her Moo more often than Marty, probably. These photos are from May -- she kept getting in the way of the shots I was trying to take of some projects, so I humored her by granting her a little photo shoot of her own.

Andrew pointed out that the "i see you" part of the title could also stand for ICU -- how timely! I'll have to scrap this whole event too someday, once we have a little distance from it.

On a completely different note, I've realized that I haven't posted my layouts to my SCS gallery in ages. It's such a stamp/card-heavy site that I guess I haven't really thought about it. I certainly don't have the energy to keep up with yet another online craft site like two peas or something. Hm. Do you, my two faithful SCS-member-readers (that'd be Meg and Emily), ever pay attention to layouts there? Just wondering. I don't, but maybe I should.

25 July 2010

For those of you who read the post before this one -- I just called the vet, and Marty's vitals are all good still, plus she's starting to eat like a champ (which is her usual state). These are great signs, but we won't know if we can bring her home until sometime this evening. Poor kitty.

As promised, though, I do have some cards for you -- I wrapped up all the Dare to Get Dirty challenges with these.

First:

A rural-themed, orange-using, stitched sketch of a card. The focal point is Cornish Heritage Farms, stamped on woodgrain paper from Creative Imaginations. Orange circle is cut with my not-too-oft-used Martha circle cutter and stamped with Hero woodgrain. BG is embossed with that cuttlebug folder with the bird in the grass -- but you can't see the bird here. Oops. Martha seam binding (OLD), a button, some twine and stitching finish it off.

Second:

A shaped sketchy floral/feminine birthday card, made with a nestie. I used an ancient scrap for the dp -- I'm pretty sure it's Basic Grey, though. I probably should have used a more feminine font for the sentiment, but my new SU bday set was just sitting there, and I'm lazy. Turns out that floral is not my strong suit, design-wise. I think that's kind of hilarious because I love to garden.

Third for today:

A garden-themed sketchy card with an altered jar on the side. I have little use for altering items unless I have a recipient in mind, so lining a jar with some dp and a ribbon is admittedly a cop-out. Kinda cute, though! DP on both cards is PTI's Green Boutique, and I used Green Thumb for the focal point and sentiment. The blue panel and flowers are from Petal Power. You might need to click on this one to see any details. Actually, the only non-PTI item here is the ribbon on the jar, which is SU's Marina Mist. It's the only new ribbon I ordered.

With these cards, I'm officially in the running for Challenge Queen. It's also been a fabulous distraction today. My next distraction?

This came in the mail on Friday. For free! I won it on the Paper Crafts blog. Winning anything is fun, but winning a $15 dollar magazine is pretty nifty.

I think I'll get back to scrapping for awhile. I have some extra kit goodies from Scrappy Chic to get to, and I'd already picked out some me-and-Marty pics to go with some of them.

Oh, and my pal, fellow blogger and fellow design-team member, Liz, is going to be at CHA in my stead. Liz, you better blog the heck out of it! I'm so bummed to miss out on the in-person experience.

I have things to post, but not yet.
Our little Marty kitten (she's 15 months) went to the vet yesterday, and we learned she has a crazy-low blood count. She had a transfusion last night, and it went well, but we don't know the source of the problem yet. I'll keep y'all posted.
I also won't be leaving for CHA tomorrow, as I'd hoped. Even if we can bring Marty home tonight, she'll need medications and love and all, and I'd feel terrible leaving.
You can see photos of Marty in this post and this post.

Thanks, folks. I hope to be back soon with some more Dare to Get Dirty challenges.

22 July 2010

Hi there -
It's late, I've been roller skating, and I've had a beer. This post is gonna be quick!

I've got 4 cards for you -- all for the Dare to Get Dirty challenges, and one bonus: Susan'sOne-Layer Wednesday, which just happened to work with some of the DTGD stuff. Nifty.

First, a non-card:

So, I've never really gotten over my college-era Audrey Hepburn fascination. I may have mentioned this before. I have a whole set of Audrey images from Stampsmith, and this one in particular was perfect to make movie-themed treat packaging featuring a girl and some gingham.

Next:

Next, a delightfully bright color combo in a die-cut-employing sketch that uses a set from PTI - Chair-ished - that hasn't seen ink yet, though I've had it for months.

Third:

Another sketch featuring more die cuts and a winged woman. That color combo came from a bit of serendipity (ooh, does that word give anyone else another Audrey Hepburn reference, or am I the only one who has seen Paris when it Sizzles?).

Anywho, there were bits of Hawaiian Shores, Berry Sorbet, and Kraft in a pile. I dug them together.

Finally:

My fave of the bunch, even though the photo sucks and I was too lazy to retake and re-edit. This is the card for Susan's challenge (sorry for making you wade through, Susan!), as well as a similarly-themed DTGD challenge and another which involved cas and color, and another avoiding the A2.

When I got this PTI set, I struggled with making cards I liked. I might not have made any at all that actually made it out of the house. This time, it works! I even like the sentiment, though I wish the font size on all the sentiments in the set was a titch larger. Odd scale if you ask me.

Enough for one day! If you see something here that I didn't explain fully, or you want to know more supply-wise, just ask. You are welcome to take a peek at these cards in my SCS gallery -- there's a link somewhere over on the right, and I do a much better job of listing supplies over yonder.

Please, have a delightful evening. I think I'll have a G&T. Delightful.

21 July 2010

For those of you not on Splitcoast Stampers, this week is all about bonus challenges (called Dare to get Dirty) for those of us who are Fan Club members -- it's a relatively small financial investment, and it gets one into bonus galleries and bonus challenges like these! All of today's cards feature multiple challenges, but to learn the details, you gotta join for yourselves!

First up, first 3-challenge card:

The new square lattice embossing folder from SU is pretty nifty on it's own. Here, I embossed my cajun craze panel about 4 times, shifting the angle each time and finishing up with a panel that feels fabric-y -- and it tears really easily, too, just so you know. But it feels cool! Image is from Unity, BG is from tattered angels.

Second, and 3 more challenges:

One of the challenges was to take inspiration from TV. Earlier this summer, I read Julia Child's autobiography. Then I discovered that Cooking Channel plays old episodes of Julia Child and Company, which is sometimes randomly replaced by even older episodes of The French Chef. I'm hooked. Her show is so, so much more "real" looking than most cooking on TV, and I just love her attitude.
Stamps are from Cornish Heritage Farms and Hero Arts.

Third three-challenge card:

More kitchen utensils from a barely-used SU set, along with some dental floss from one of the hundreds of sample-sized flosses from the dentist. No one travels THAT much! Papers are from Oliver (Basic Grey).

One of these things is not like the others:

This is for just one regular ol' challenge -- CAS76. OA papers, PTI and Tattered Angels stamps, SU twill.

I've made more, but I'm a little slow on the photos. Maybe later! Enjoy your day.

19 July 2010

Yo yo -
This posting every day thing is not going to last, I know. I just had so much to catch up on! Anyway, this is the last post about the stuff I made at the Scrappy Chic crop last weekend. Here we go:

Card 1:

I picked up the Basic Grey Oliver 6x6 deck and broke it out for a couple cards. On this one, I also used a glittery border from Melody Ross I had left over from a kit a couple months ago, with some Studio Calico letters, an American Crafts brad, and a Basic Grey stamp. Easy! And the good news? My zig-zag stitch seems to be working again. I didn't even adjust the tension or anything, it just worked. Cool.

Two:

More Oliver on this one, mainly scraps from one of the layouts. I didn't cut anything first, just plopped the pieces down on the card and then trimmed around the outside. I'm lazy like that. Another Melody Ross border, plus October Afternoon and Cosmo Cricket stickers. I used even more of these scraps on one of the Dare to Get Dirty challenge cards, but that's another story.

Three:

Girl time! Olivia here instead of Oliver. Love the little bird on that die-cut! Girls' Paperie and Cosmo Cricket stickers, a Papertrey button and some American Crafts ribbon.

So ever since I whipped up my own little foamcore photo "studio," getting good pictures has gotten so much easier! This time around, I tried out the buttons-as-props thing. What do you think? Is it a trend that's jumped the shark?

Last night I made 3 more cards to fulfill 9 Dare to get Dirty challenges on SCS. Whew! I'll post those next. My SCS gallery is sorely in need of updating. Ok, then, off to finish my coffee. Have a lovely day.

18 July 2010

Yesterday was all about the boy layouts; today is girl-tastic. Here we go:

First, let me clear up one thing: that photo is not black and white to look particularly artsy (though I do love B&W photography), it's black and white because I looked TERRIBLE in the color version! This was taken in a dark bar at the end of a humid night. Shine-tastic. Thank goodness for basic iPhoto/Picasa effects!

Anyway, the photo is from a fun little gathering I had a month or two ago with 3 of my pals from grad school, two of whom now live way over in DC. Fun times! When I walked in and saw the others at a table, it was seriously like someone had hit a rewind button -- we just picked up right where we left off!

But enough about me! Most of the layout is My Mind's Eye's So Sophie collection, which is quite girly and textured and fun. The big border sticker and the large alphas are Girls' Paperie, and the smaller alphas are from an older Basic Grey set. I did a little stitching on the border as well as some "underlining" on the title. It's perhaps a little too subtle in the photo, though.

Numero dos:

I love this layout! Same paper line, with October Afternoon and Basic Grey alphas, a little banner border from American Crafts/Dear Lizzy, and a homemade pattern tissue flower.

A bit of explanation - every May in the Detroit area, Mega Meet comes to town! Huge scrap show with lots of vendors, classes, crop time, and PEOPLE everywhere. Scrappy Chic had a booth, and I had a blast working there one of the days. That's me on the left, Liz on the right, and Chris, owner extraordinaire, in the middle. If you'd like to know more, you could check out this post from May.

Next up, I'll be getting back to some cards. But for now, I think it's time for some homemade peach-blueberry sorbet. Or maybe some cherry-blueberry crisp. Or a muffin. I went kind of cooking nuts today! Anyone else inspired by all the yummy summer fruits and veggies?

17 July 2010

So I'm finally caught up on reading all the blogs I missed when the internet was down. Seeing all the CHA peeks from various companies is getting me pretty geeked to head out to Chicago in a couple weeks! If you've seen anything particularly awesome, let me know!

A week ago, I spent a lovely Sunday with Liz at Scrappy Chic, where we cropped the day away. I whipped out 4 layouts and 3 cards -- not too shabby!! Let's do a couple kid-friendly layouts today, shall we?

First:

Hey, it's a "boy-my-godson-is-cute" layout! And so he is. This also happens to be a "someone-on-the-design-team-has-to-use-this-paper-guess-it'll-be-me" layout ;). Anyway, I kept the safari critters to a minimum, and the colors do actually work really well with the photos, so I ended up liking the result! I love it when a plan comes together. Those corrugated alphas are from Making Memories's Panorama line, and I like 'em even though they didn't want to stick on the textured cs. Other supplies: Jenni Bowlin alphas, Sassafras banner sticker, rick rack, tiny attacher.

Next up:

Another cute-godson pic, along with a cute-husband and cute-pal this time. Avery had a lot of fun learning the rules of monkey in the middle and playing catch with those Velcro mitt things. I patchworked a bunch of papers and stickers and such to get the background the way I wanted it -- mostly Basic Grey Oliver, with some other goodies thrown in. Originally, the big Prima felt letters stood alone, but there wasn't enough contrast for my taste, so I added the little October Afternoon alphas. I think I like the result. Probably. A little more cluttered than usual for me, still.

Ok, off to do some grocery shopping and such.

Hello to Donna and Mema and anyone else from my family who discovered my blog this week :)

16 July 2010

Hey -
The internet's been off for most of the past few days. It went out, came back on, and went out again - 15 minutes before the new Papertrey release went live, no less.
Anyway, I have stuff to post and whatnot, but there are almost 60 blog posts to wade through first. Oy.
The internet issues should be permanently fixed now, though -- the cable guy replaced the whole long outside cable with something way sturdier. Whew.
Later!

08 July 2010

Now, before any needlework aficionados get all het up, I know doily-making involves tatting, not knitting. However, doilies make cuter backgrounds than afghans. ;)
This doily is Hero Arts, and the image and sentiment are from A Muse. Other stuff: Signo gel pen, basic black ink, Fresh Snow ink, Daffodil Delight cs.

If it makes the card any funnier, knit actually doesn't happen, in my house anyway. I know how, but it bores me. Paper's much more fun, no?

Have a (daffodil) delightful day, ok? It finally rained here a little; maybe the heat is finally lifting? The clouds make for wonderfully dark and grainy photos, anyway....

Any big weekend plans? I'll be cropping with Liz (who has some blog candy to give away, btw) on Sunday at Scrappy Chic, and I'll have a little quality family-girl time tomorrow. But tonight: roller skating! Yee-haw!

05 July 2010

Hello, people.
It's ridiculously hot here! It was already 85 when I left the house this morning. At 9:30. Sheesh. Now it's over 90, where it will stay for the next several days. What is that in Celsius, O Canadians - 30-something? I'm a heat wimp. Give me snow any day.

Super-duper simple! I actually find patriotic cards very hard to make. I don't have a lot of specifically patriotic stamps or other goodies, so I decided to kind of wing it here. The label stamp is Unity, from their Cosmo Cricket Garden Variety set. The "USA" is Stampin' Up's Rough Type alphabet, the star is from Starstruck, and the colors are Pacific Point (one of my fave blues ever) and Real Red. CS is PTI's rustic cream. Hooray for patriotism, even if it's one day late for the 4th!

And, in case you like checking out other people's goodies (and who doesn't?), here's my July kit from Scrappy Chic:

From left to right, sort of, we have some animal/safari-ish kid stuff from Reminisce (Since I put the kits together for the design team, I kind of feel obligated to give myself the lines I don't think anyone could use -- none of us have small children, you see). Then there's the fun Oliver from Basic Grey and some So Sophie from My Mind's Eye (lovely texture on all their stuff). Journalling cards from Making Memories Panorama, Ruby Rock It (they have fun stuff; I think they're new to the States), and My Mind's Eye Meadowlark. Yippee! Maybe with all those journalling cards I'll actually write more on my layouts. Novel idea.

Well, since it's so stinkin' hot, I guess I'll go make something! Hope it's cool(er) where you are!

03 July 2010

Good morning, all!
No kid on this layout. Actually, no people at all! Here's the last of the three layouts I made this week for Scrappy Chic:

I think this is the first vista I've scrapped :) It's somewhere over Lake Michigan, at the midpoint of a hike I did with my family last summer.

The background is some lovely woodgrain-textured cs from Core-dinations; one of the Cosmo Cricket collections, I think. But wait! There's more texture:

The title is on die-cut cork (one of the new Tim Holtz dies -- see, it doesn't have to be grungy!). I also used a couple FabRips from Studio Calico and some corrugated CS from Creative Imaginations for the border strips.

It's really a very clean layout -- I thought maybe that open space on the right needed something, but I didn't want to cover the woodgrain...so empty it remains. What do you think -- is it missing something?

Have a lovely 4th tomorrow, or for you Canadians, have lovely memories of the 1st tomorrow! I'm going to make my wish list for the big sale at Scrappy Chic on Monday -- 2 separate hours of 40%-off shopping! Who could beat that?

01 July 2010

Remember that cute kiddo from my last post? Here he is again, in another layout for Scrappy Chic:

I took tons of photos of Avery back in December (2009 this time -- last layout's photo was from '08)-- the lighting was perfect, he was paying no attention to the camera, and he just looked so gosh-darn serious. Couldn't resist. This one is one of my faves.

I'm generally against foofy cutting techniques on photos -- too many bad memories of the "ooh, let's cut this picture into a heart!" trend in the early days of scrapbooking's popularity. Well, rules are made to be broken. I think the kid looks swell all on his own. :)

Lots of Studio Calico here -- all from the Documentary line, pretty much. Here's a close-up of that very manly ruffle under the title:

It might look fancy, but it's just a slice of a paper bag, pinked and pleated and inked a little.